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Last year, ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement Agents arrested a Staten Island man after he threw his friend’s cat off an eighth-floor balcony. This week justice was served.

Buriell Jones, 57, pleaded guilty to felony aggravated cruelty to animals, the top count against him, and was sentenced Monday to four months in jail. He is also no longer allowed to own an animal.

This despicable act occurred on Oct. 2, 2012, after Jones began arguing with his friend. Jones eventually threw the cat — a seven-year-old black-and-white Domestic Shorthair—from the apartment balcony on Broad Street in Staten Island.

Unfortunately, when ASPCA Agents arrived, the cat had already passed away. A necropsy revealed the cat died from severe blunt-force trauma.

“Four months may not seem like enough punishment to fit the crime, but at least this man will no longer be able to own an animal,” says Stacy Wolf, ASPCA Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel.

We work hard to arrest and help prosecute anyone who abuses animals, but we need your help to ensure those who harm animals pay for their crimes. If you suspect animal cruelty in your area, please report it. Animals are counting on us.

This morning a post written by independent journalist Will Potter made the front page of the social news website Reddit. It’s now blowing up on Twitter. Reaching thousands of people, Potter’s post detailed the first ag-gag prosecution in the United States.

A 25-year-old Utah woman who says she was standing on a public street outside a slaughterhouse used her cell phone to film an injured cow being carted away by a tractor lift. Amy Meyer now faces a class B misdemeanor for agricultural operation interference.

Ag-gag laws, like the one that passed last year in Utah, are specifically designed to silence investigators who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms. But they can reach much further than that, potentially penalizing other witnesses and whistle-blowing workers. They can also hide other abuses, including food safety and labor violations. They criminalize acts including the recording, possession or distribution of photos, video and/or audio on a farm.

“This case illustrates the underlying intent of these laws: to keep citizens in the dark about what happens to animals on factory farms and where their food comes from,” says Suzanne McMillan, Director of the ASPCA’s Farm Animal Welfare Campaign.

Got a sec? Today we’re joining forces to celebrate National Animal Advocacy Day—and we could really use your help! We need everyone to pick up the phone, call their legislators and urge them to ban horse slaughter once and for all.

Horse slaughter is barbaric and cruel. It’s not only bad for horses, but it also for people. Meat from American horses is unsafe for human consumption. Enacting a ban on horse slaughter has never been more urgent.

What Do You Say?It’s simple. Ask your legislators to support the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act. The SAFE Act will prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption in the U.S. and ban their export abroad for that purpose. This bill will protect our nation’s horses from the predatory horse slaughter industry and protect the public from toxic horse meat.

West Coast dogs are on the move! On Saturday, 68 adoptable dogs traveled from Southern California to shelters in Washington where they’ll have a better chance to find loving homes. The dogs traveled by plane, car—and even helicopter!

The dogs left Los Angeles Animal Services’ West Valley Shelter and Best Friends Pet Adoption & Spay Neuter Center on Saturday morning and headed for the Long Beach airport! They were loaded onto 22 planes flown by volunteer pilots with Pilots N Paws, sponsored in part by Subaru, and began their voyage north. In Fresno, California, the dogs boarded a second set of planes, and Pilots N Paws volunteer pilots flew them the rest of the way to Northern California.

After landing at the airport in Redding, the dogs were met by vans funded by the ASPCA and driven by volunteers and staff from Kitsap Humane Society in Silverdale, Wash. After receiving walks, dinner and fresh water, the dogs were driven overnight to Kitsap Humane Society and Seattle Humane Society (in Bellevue, Washington), where they will eventually be available for adoption.

About 100 more Southern California dogs are awaiting their rides tomorrow. Stay tuned to ASPCA.org for updates!

The ASPCA wanted to take a day out of the year to draw special attention to the plight of horses in our country. We chose April 26 because in 1866 our founder, Henry Bergh, stopped a cart driver from beating his horse, resulting in the first successful arrest for the mistreatment of a horse on April 26. Horses were critical to our mission at the founding of the ASPCA—and they’re just as important now.